After BJP chief Rajnath Singh’s earlier gag order failed to yield any result with party leaders continuing to speak on the contentious issue of the party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and supporting Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s name for the post, the BJP chief on Monday made a “final appeal” to party leaders not to speak on the issue.
However, the BJP chief’s “final appeal” failed to have any impact as senior party leaders C.P. Thakur, Maneka Gandhi and Shatrughan Sinha reiterated that Mr Modi should be projected as the PM candidate. Sources disclosed the BJP will seek a reply from both these leaders for defying the party order. JD(U) chief and NDA convenor Sharad Yadav also demanded an end to the “mad rush” among NDA leaders to speak on the contentious issue.
The growing clamour for the Gujarat CM has caused heartburn within the NDA as the BJP’s key allies JD(U) and Shiv Sena are not in favour of supporting Mr Modi.
Meanwhile, speculation is also rife that Mr Modi will be inducted into the BJP parliamentary board along with his Madhya Pradesh counterpart Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Mr Modi is also expected to head the BJP’s campaign committee for next year’s general polls.
“I want to humbly appeal to BJP workers and leaders that there should be no statement from them on who will be the candidate for the Prime Minister’s post. As I have said earlier, the BJP convention is that any decision on the chief ministerial or prime ministerial candidate is taken by the central parliamentary board,” BJP chief Rajnath Singh said earlier in the day. His comments came in the wake of demands from BJP leaders like Ram Jethmalani and Yashwant Sinha that Mr Modi be made the party’s PM candidate. Also, VHP leader Ashok Singhal had made a similar appeal on Sunday.
Asking NDA leaders to focus on key issues confronting the nation rather than speaking on the contentious issue, NDA convenor Sharad Yadav said, “I have never seen such a mad rush for prime ministership in the last six decades.”
In Patna, Shatrughan Sinha backed Yashwant Sinha who has openly pitched for declaring Mr Modi as the BJP’s PM candidate.
“Yashwant Sinhaji is a senior and an experienced leader. He never talks light. He speaks only after giving deep thought on an issue, I stand with him on what he has said... There is always truth in what he says. I have always been by his side ideologically,” Mr Sinha said.
Maneka Gandhi, who was in Ranchi to attend a cow protection group’s programme, said, “My support is with whoever the party chooses as the prime ministerial candidate. I think Modi will be a good Prime Minister. There are five-six leaders in the party who also will make a good prime minister,” she said.
On a question about Rahul Gandhi, she said, “Whether he is capable or not is for everyone to see in the recent election results like in UP and other states wherever he has campaigned. The question is not about Rahul Gandhi but about how the Congress has been in distress everywhere.”